SPORTS BRIEFS

Agencies

CRICKET

West Indies down Zimbabwe

West Indies offspinner Shane Shillingford’s 10-wicket haul on Friday led his team to victory over Zimbabwe by an innings and 65 runs inside three days to complete a 2-0 win in the two-Test series. Shillingford took 5-34 to finish with 10-93 at Windsor Park for 19 wickets in the series at an average of 10.53, surpassing Courtney Walsh’s West Indies record for a two-Test series of 16 wickets set against New Zealand in 1995. Zimbabwe trailed on first innings by 206 runs after West Indies declared overnight at 381-8 and was then skittled out for 141, allowing the hosts to win their sixth straight Test and retain the Clive Lloyd Trophy. Offspinner Marlon Samuels grabbed 3-35 and there was a wicket each for fast bowler Tino Best and captain Darren Sammy.

CYCLING

Parisien takes fifth stage

Canadian Francois Parisien won the fifth stage of the Tour of Catalonia on Friday as Ireland’s Daniel Martin extended his overall lead. Parisien of the Argos-Shimano team took the stage honors on the line as 13 riders finished the 156km ride from Rialp to Lleida to a time of 3 hours, 32 minutes, 2 seconds. However, Martin was the real winner of the day as he gained a bonus second by finishing third in a sprint and then gained three more seconds on second-placed Joaquim Rodriguez in the dash to the line to extend his advantage to 14 seconds with just two stages remaining. After two grueling days of climbing through the Pyrenees, Friday’s more manageable stage saw the riders finish nearly 500m lower in Lleida than they began in Rialp. Just after the 50km mark though Olivier Kaisen (Lotto) and Tristan Valentin (Cofidis) made a break and quickly built up nearly a four minute advantage, with the peloton catching them with about 15km to go. The big names then began to bunch together as last year’s Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins briefly led Team Sky to the front of the pack. In an incredibly tight finish Parisien surged towards the line to take his first stage victory of the season.

CYCLING

Cancellara wins again

Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland broke away with 35km to go and won his third E3 Harelbeke WorldTour classic in the past four years with a superb solo effort on Friday. In a sprint finish of the chasing group, Fabian Sagan of Slovakia took second place ahead of Daniel Oss of Italy. The victory was the clearest indication yet that Cancellara was back to his best form after last year’s season was ruined by crashes and injury. Battling wind and cold on the 211km route that finished in Harelbeke, Belgium, Cancellara finished in 5 hours, 8 minutes, 28 seconds, beating Sagan by 66 seconds. “This is big day for me after a tough time after last year. It was beautiful,” said Cancellara, who celebrated his 32nd birthday earlier this week. The Harelbeke race is an established classic and has been staged since 1958.

SOCCER

Japan edge Canada 2-1

Japan edged Canada 2-1 in an international friendly on Friday to clinch a morale-boosting win ahead of Tuesday’s showdown with Jordan, where victory would secure a place in the 2014 World Cup finals. Vitesse striker Mike Havenaar grabbed the Japan winner in Doha with a left foot drive in the 74th minute. Shinji Okazaki had given the Asian champions a 10th-minute lead, before Marcus Haber leveled for Canada on the hour mark, heading in a cross from Will Johnson.